[dspillett]

That has image consequences, making them look too expensive for more people compared to the competition. It isn't as simple as “the price the market will bear right now”, they have to consider the longer term effects of putting people off.

The obvious answer to that is of course “then just make more, if there is enough to go around the scalpers won't make any/enough profit” but that has its own problems: the production processes are not yet scaling that way, perhaps due to quality issues caused by trying to speed up, perhaps due to limited amounts of specialist production-line equipment for the affected models, perhaps due to issues getting enough raw materials at a faster rate for the “right price”, perhaps a mix of all of the above (plus a little intentional generation of artificial product scarcity in the market).

Assuming I'm right about process (and material sourcing) scaling issues being a significant part of the problem, charging more because the existence of scalpers indicates that (at the current production levels) they can would be like [artist of the moment] charging much more per place at concerts, or the events like the London Marathon charging double/triple/more for the base entry price instead of using a balloted entry system. They can't simply make more places available, and the two-tier system (the haves can have, the have-nots can't afford) resulting from higher prices would cause image souring and affect future interest & sales (and for those that genuinely care about the art/atmosphere/event at least as much as the money, may offend the economic morals of the artist/organisers too). The target end result is to be a mass production vehicle, not a low volume collectors item.